Citation

United States Department of Health and Human Services. National Center for Health Statistics. National Health Examination Survey, Cycle I, 1959-1962: Body Measurements. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 1992-02-17. https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR09203.v1

Summary

The National Health Examination Surveys, Cycle I (NHES I),
conducted during the period 1959-1962, were designed to secure
statistics on the health status of the population of the United States.
More specifically, their purpose was to determine the prevalence of
certain chronic diseases, the status of dental health, and the
distributions of auditory and visual acuity and certain anthropometric
measurements. This collection contains data relating to the physical
measurements of each examined person. Eighteen measurements of body
size were taken including right arm girth, chest girth, waist girth,
right arm skinfold, right infrascapular skinfold, height, weight,
sitting normal height, sitting erect height, knee height.

Citation

United States Department of Health and Human Services. National Center for Health Statistics. National Health Examination Survey, Cycle I, 1959-1962: Body Measurements. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 1992-02-17. https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR09203.v1

Geographic Coverage

Time Period(s)

1959-10 -- 1962-12

Data Collection Notes

All body dimensions other than weight are the scale
readings recorded to the nearest millimeter. All linear measurements,
other than skinfolds, were converted from centimeters to inches. Files
from the NHES Cycle I, 1959-1962 may be linked using the File Sequence
number in columns 1-5. The age distribution for this file is: N=3,853
ages 18-44, N=1,252 ages 45-54, N=861 ages 55-64, N=564 ages 65-74, and
N=142 ages 75-79.